Raised Intracranial Pressure
Raised Intra-Cranial Pressure means that the pressure inside the skull (the cranium) is higher than it should be. The pressure is determined by the pressure of the contents of the cranial cavity - the brain, the fluid - the cerebero-spinal fluid (CSF) that bathes the brain and spinal cord, and the blood vessels. Intra-cranial pressure rises if the brain swells (called cerebral oedema), as it does after severe head injury, during infection or surrounding a tumour, for example; if the drainage of the CSF is blocked (see hydrocephalus) or if there is bleeding from a blood vessel, as in sub-arachnoid or sub-dural or extra-dural haemorrhage (bleeding from an abnormal artery into the space between the meninges and the brain, or bleeding into the space outside the brain following a head injury).
The treatment of raised intra-cranial pressure is to reduce it before it results in irreversible damage or death. Cerebral oedema from tumours can be reduced using steroids, infection treated, pressure from the presence of blood clots relieved by evacuating the clot and stopping the bleeding where possible. (It is interesting that blood loss outside the cranial cavity causes the blood pressure to fall and the pulse rate to rise, while bleeding inside the skull has the opposite effect).
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